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Ten Billion, The Royal Court’s new play about overpopulation.

Now I can’t tell you when the last time I went to a play. I do remember that it was so bad that I walked out at interval and did not return so for me plays are not something that I would gradate towards. I would rather go sun bathing and as any one who knows me that is not high on my list of things to do before I die.

So Imagine my surprise at reading this review of a play in the Guardian. I would like to go to one shame it is sold out. read the review here.

The basic premise is that we all consume to much as we head to towards a population of 10 Billion. All bets are off for our chance to mitigate the effects of climate change, this means that without sustained efforts my all of us and that also means governments and corporations then the life that we know will have a very high probability of coming to a abrupt stop one day. Floods in central London, Manhattan, Mumbai and every other Low lying city on the planet. The Greenland Ice sheet is melting faster than anyone thought possible that one face alone has huge consequences. We have set up negative feedback loops in the climate system that will not go away easily and the longer that we stick our heads in the sand the harder the planet will bite us. The planet will survive that is not the problem but we as a species will be under extreme pressure. Our society has not been built to downsize, we do not do negative growth and this itself will ultimately change our economic systems as capitalism needs growth to continue. How do we re-imagine our societies and downsize our aspirations for consumption and still give people a good standard of living? This is a major problem that we as a society have not even begun to ask.

So for all the photographers in my audience the photos that you make today will ultimately become a record of life lived in this time of apparent plenty before the change in the system that must come if we as a species are to thrive.